Public Health Concentration

Help groups of people live better, healthier lives. Combine policy, education, science, and communication in this exciting, increasingly important field.

Why Study Public Health at Albion?

Our interdisciplinary program balances coursework based on public health principles with hands-on experience. You’ll build a diverse toolkit to evaluate public health challenges and identify potential solutions. Then, you’ll get to actually start doing the work of promoting health and improving lives.

Emphases

After taking your core public health courses, you’ll choose from one of two tracks.

Global and Community Health Emphasis

Community and global health translate public health science into effective programming and services for local communities. In this track, you’ll understand what it takes to be a successful community health worker locally or abroad. You’ll learn to document community needs, connect people to available resources, promote good health practices and disease prevention, and advocate for equitable health policy.

Public Health Sciences Emphasis

Successful public health initiatives are grounded in science. In this track, you’ll understand the scientific and cultural foundations for best practices in public health. You’ll study topics like immunology, virology, nutrition, and microbiology. You’ll learn how to develop scientifically sound public health policies and programs for the future.

Boston University Partnership

Public health students at Albion are invited to participate in the Select Scholars Program at Boston University, a top-ranked public health school. You can pursue a Master of Public Health or a Master of Science in Population Health. No GRE scores are required and acceptance comes with a guaranteed scholarship.

Living Learning Community

Join our Living Learning Community and live alongside fellow students interested in public health. You’ll participate in special events and activities related to public health including a speaker series, contact tracing training, mask-making demonstrations, leadership activities, and a Walk to End Alzheimer’s team.

Capstone Experience

Learn what it’s really like to work in public health via an internship or practicum for credit, a paid internship, or a volunteer experience. You’ll spend at least 30 hours at a public health-related organization of your choosing. Your experience should enhance your understanding of epidemiological processes, public health data, determinants of health, or the most pressing public health issues in the United States.

Wilson Institute

As a public health student at Albion College, you’ll gain immersive clinical, research, and community engagement experience through the Lisa and James Wilson Institute for Medicine, which prepares students for graduate school and future healthcare careers in dentistry, medicine, veterinary medicine, physician assistant studies, nursing, and allied health professions.

What Will You Learn as a Public Health Student?

You’ll learn the foundations of public health, the practice of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health for groups of people. You’ll understand the core functions and services of the field.

You’ll take an array of courses across different departments—anthropology, biology, chemistry, communications, economics and management, kinesiology, philosophy, psychology, and sociology—based on your chosen track as well as your interests and career goals.

You’ll learn by doing, an internship, research project, or study abroad experience.

Public health offers a wide range of career options for all types of skillsets. Our students have gone on to promote community health by working in medicine, communications, journalism, philanthropy, and more.

Job Titles

• Program Analyst
• Communications Officer
• Data Visualization Consultant
• Public Health Consultant
• Data Analyst
• Health and Wellness Coordinator
• Research Associate

Employers

• Gates Ventures
• Henry Ford Health System
• Massachusetts General Hospital
• Public Health Post
• Beaumont Hospital
• ICAP at Columbia University
• University of Michigan
• Oregon Health & Science University